Make a paste with soy sauce, vinegar and corn starch. Remove skim from the chicken and place in baking dish, meat side up. Add remaining ingredients to paste and pour over chicken. Bake at 250° F for 3-4 hours. Serve over bed of rice with boiled or steamed broccoli and carrots.

We have come up with an immune system boosting drink that is absolutely delicious. We don’t offer it for sale, but you can make it easily at home. It keeps in the fridge for days, so it is easy to make up a batch ahead of time and drink a glass every day.

We start with Kefir for good digestive health as well as helping protect against prevalent bugs that cause intestinal upset. Next, we add virgin coconut oil. It provides a wonderful coconut flavor as well as providing many antiviral properties, not to mention the tremendous other benefits of coconut oil.

The next “active” ingredient is Colostrum. Colostrum is the secretion from a cow’s udder (or any other female mammal – people too) after calving, but before her milk comes in. A newborn calf (as well as any other infant mammal or even child) is born into this world without a developed immune system. God has ingeniously provided for the calf’s needs by imparting special immune system boosting agents to Colostrum. It is so essential that a calf will rarely survive a year if it doesn’t receive its mother’s Colostrum. Amazingly, babies in this country are frequently withheld their own mothers’ Colostrum. And we wonder why we have so many health problems. I did not get Colostrum from my mother, and I believe that lack is responsible for my fragile immune system from which I often suffer. I have been drinking this smoothie for about 6 months now, and I believe it has been helping me considerably. It is also helps those suffering from Asthma.

Lastly, we add a bit of frozen fruit and honey or orange juice concentrate to sweeten it a bit. The result is delicious. It is amazing that the best medicine often tastes so good. You can adjust your own proportions, but here is what we do:

1 or 2 Tablespoons Colostrum
Small handful of fresh or frozen fruit (strawberries, blackberries, etc.)
2-3 Tablespoons orange juice concentrate or 1 Tablespoon honey, or sweeten to taste
This recipe makes about 4 cups. Drink a cup a day or as much as you like. If you want to boost your omega-3 intake, just add a tablespoon or your favorite cod liver, fish, or flax oil.

If any of you try this smoothie and have good results, please let us know. We are blessed when we hear how folks are helped by our healing foods.

Sweet Italian Sausage

Directions:
Mix all ingredients together until well blended. Chill until ready to use.
Enjoy!

]]>http://willowhills.org/2011/08/04/pork-recipes/feed/0Grilling Lean Beef – the Argentina Wayhttp://willowhills.org/2011/08/04/grilling-lean-beef-the-argentina-way/
http://willowhills.org/2011/08/04/grilling-lean-beef-the-argentina-way/#respondThu, 04 Aug 2011 22:03:44 +0000http://willowhills.org/wordpress/?p=98Continue reading →]]>Grilling lean beef is not difficult once you know how. The secret is sealing the juices in the meat, so that it doesn’t dry out while cooking. In Argentina, cooking beef and other meats is an art form.

Before we put our beef on the barbeque, we like to marinade and/or season first. For steaks, we put the steak in a dish, and sprinkle one side with garlic salt and pepper and pour wine vinegar over it. Then we flip it over and repeat the process on the other side. For better roasts, such as top or bottom round, we slather the whole thing in mustard. The mustard helps seal the meat, and disappears during cooking, imparting a nice flavor.

Now, when you go to put it on the grill, you want to put the meat on the hottest part of the fire until the meat is slightly blackened (or at least cooked) on one side. Flip the meat over to blacken the other side. This process seals the meat so the juices don’t escape during cooking. Next, move the meat over to a cooler part of the fire to finish cooking – slowly. The variation between the two temperatures promotes a steak that is both juicy and tender. The fast cooking seals the outside, so it doesn’t dry out during the slow cooking, which improves the meats tenderness. The result is a tender, juicy and flavorful delight.

Bon appetite!

]]>http://willowhills.org/2011/08/04/grilling-lean-beef-the-argentina-way/feed/0Making Kefirhttp://willowhills.org/2011/08/04/making-kefir/
http://willowhills.org/2011/08/04/making-kefir/#respondThu, 04 Aug 2011 22:02:30 +0000http://willowhills.org/wordpress/?p=96Continue reading →]]>Most folks are familiar with yogurt, but only a few have even heard of Kefir. In my opinion, Kefir is far superior to yogurt, and can be used in place of yogurt. It is easier to make, the culture never runs out as does yogurt, and it is more versatile.

When I first heard of Kefir grains, I thought it was some kind of grain seed from Eastern Europe. The phrase “Kefir grains” however, is actually a misnomer. It is actually a bio-matrix of the symbiotic micro-organisms which are used to culture Kefir. The great thing about these grains is that unlike yogurt culture, they never run out. After culturing yogurt for several generations, the culture becomes unbalanced and you must start over with new starter. In contrast, Kefir grains have been passed down for literally hundreds of years and the proper symbiotic balance between the organisms is maintained indefinitely.

Making Kefir

Since making Kefir is a continuously repeated process, we have to start somewhere in the middle of a cycle. Let us assume you have received an active culture from a friend or other supplier. You begin by straining the grains out of the liquid. You need a fairly course strainer. A colander works. I use a jar sprout lid with fairly large holes. The liquid portion is the Kefir, the solid gelatenous mass is the “grains”.

If the culture has been not been used lately, it will be somewhat dormant. In that case the Kefir will be yeastier than usual and may not taste as good as it should. If you are just starting out, it may take up to a week to fully reactive your culture.

Now having strained out your grains, you are now ready to make a new batch. Nothing could be easier. Simply add milk to your grains and set on the shelf at room temperature. Your Kefir should be ready sometime the next day. You can tell it is ready when you begin to see some separation between the curds and whey. If you wait too long, the separation will be more profound, and it will be clumpier due to the solidification of the curds. If you don’t wait long enough, it may not be fully cultured and still somewhat sweet.

You repeat this process every day. If you want to take a break, just stick the jar into the fridge for a few days to slow things down. Each day, your quantity of “grains” will increase. You should increase the amount of milk you culture until you get to the volume desired. At that point, just remove some of the grains every few days to maintain the proper ratio. The ratio needn’t be exact. The basic rule of thumb is the culture time should be about 24 hours at room temp. If it is too fast or too slow, just adjust the ratio. Since the “grains” increase volume every day, you’ll need to monitor this ratio. Again it doesn’t have to be very exact, so don’t be concerned about getting it wrong. If you have too little, just let it sit a little longer, and if you have too much, just increase your milk next time or cut back on the grains.

Using Your Kefir

Kefir is very versatile, more-so than yogurt. Its most common use is as a refreshing beverage. I like to add raw honey (about 1 heaping tablespoon per cup) and a few strawberries, and puree in the blender. It has a delightful effervescent quality that I can’t describe. It is wonderful.

You can also use it in place of milk on granola for breakfast. You’ll never go back to using milk on your cereal again. There are many other uses that I have only begun to explore. You can try freezing the beverage for a frozen-yogurt type dessert. You can try cocoa powder instead of fruit. Let your imagination run wild.

For More Information

I have only given you a basic overview of making and using Kefir. There are many more uses, and you can store your excess grains for backup. To learn more, I recommend Dom’s Kefir In-Site. He documents Kefir’s history, care for your Kefir grains, and a myriad of other uses.

To obtain Kefir, you can get some from a friend, and there are many sources on the Internet as well. Stay away from any so-called “cultures”. These are not real Kefir grains. A laboratory culture of Kefir grains cannot be made. It must be passed down from person to person. We are now offering Kefir grains for sale for at our online store – WillowHillsNaturalFoods.com

]]>http://willowhills.org/2011/08/04/making-kefir/feed/0Making Butterhttp://willowhills.org/2011/08/04/making-butter/
http://willowhills.org/2011/08/04/making-butter/#respondThu, 04 Aug 2011 22:01:52 +0000http://willowhills.org/wordpress/?p=94Continue reading →]]>Making your own delicious and healthy butter at home is really very simple. It can be done with the appliances available in your own kitchen. There is no need to purchase an expensive butter churn.

Before diving into the procedure, it is helpful first to understand the basics of butter-making. Making butter is nothing more than agitating (e.g. shaking) cream until the fat separates from the rest of the liquid. Many a kindergarten child has taken a hand at shaking a jar of cream his teacher brought and eaten of the fresh butter resulting from each child’s shaking. Making butter at home is really that simple. We just refine the process a bit, and also work out all the buttermilk so it doesn’t spoil.

If you are starting with whole milk (it must be un-homogenized), let it sit for about 24 hours in the fridge until the cream rises to the top. You then take a ladle and skim off the cream. You can’t get it all, and should generally stop when you start getting too much milk with your cream. Next, you want to let your cream “ripen” for a while, at least 24 hours. Some of the milk sugar must turn to lactic acid in order for the butter to “come” when churning the cream. After aging a day or so in the fridge, we usually let the cream sit out for several hours before we churn it. You want the cream to be about 60 to 70 degrees Farenheight when you churn it. Letting it sit out for a while not only warms the cream, but permits it to ripen some more. Traditionally, butter was made from cream which has ripened until it is sour. Americans usually prefer the taste of butter made from sweet cream versus soured cream. You may want to experiment to see which you prefer.

Now having procurred ripened cream at the right temperature, you then agitate or churn it. There are many ways to do so. Old fashioned ways simple sloshed the cream about in a container by either rocking the container or moving a plunger up and down through the cream. The most basic way would be to just pour the cream into a glass jar, put the lid on and shake it. You can also use a mixer or blender to agitate it. Any way you choose to churn the cream, the butter should come in about 5 to 10 minutes. It will thicken into whipped cream first before seperating into fat globules and buttermilk. That is the danger when trying to make your own “whipped cream”. If you whip it too long, you will get butter! If the butter doesn’t come, then the cream is likely too cold, too warm, or not sufficiently ripened. The easiest thing to do, is just let it sit for a few more hours and try again. If it still won’t come, you can shock it with ice cold water (about 1 cup per gallon of cream).

Once the butter comes, continue agitating a little which longer to make sure all of it has come. If using a mixer, don’t go to fast or too long as the buttermilk may mix back into the butter. Once the butter has come, pour off the buttermilk. If you soured the cream first, this is the genuine article. The stuff in the store is not actually buttermilk, but just cultured milk instead. If you used sweet cream, you would need to culture the buttermilk or else let it sour. In any event, don’t throw it away. It is a delicious beverage in its own right and is also great to make into pancakes.

After pouring off the buttermilk, rinse the butter repeatedly with cool water. Work the water out, and repeat the rinsing and working until the water runs perfectly clear. Then work all the water out of the butter. There are various tools and techniques to make this task easier, but you can use either a wooden spoon or a butter paddle. It is very important to thouroughly rinse the butter and to also work out all the buttermilk. If any buttermilk is left in the butter, it will cause it to spoil quickly. It takes some time to develop this skill, but it isn’t too terribly difficult.

The final step is to add salt. Use between 1 to 3 teaspoons per pound of butter, working it in well. We usually get about 1.5 lbs of butter for every gallon of hand skimmed cream.

After making your butter, you can press it into molds if you like. You want to wrap the butter with parchment paper or plastic wrap in order to exclude all air. It keeps well in the fridge if you got the buttermilk all out, and for long term storage, put it in your freezer. Of course, for spreading on your toast, just take out small amounts every few days and keep on the counter. Special crocks are even made for keeping the butter submerged in water which will keep it fresh almost as well as the fridge.

Butter made from exclusively grass-fed cows will be a rich, deep yellow. Store-bought butter will be a pale yellow unless they added food coloring to make it look like it is supposed to be. The naturally deep yellow butter is one of best foods you can eat for good health. Use it liberally – but then I shouldn’t have to tell you that.

]]>http://willowhills.org/2011/08/04/making-butter/feed/0The Truth About Organic and Other Food Terminologyhttp://willowhills.org/2011/08/04/truth-about-organic-terminology/
http://willowhills.org/2011/08/04/truth-about-organic-terminology/#respondThu, 04 Aug 2011 21:58:23 +0000http://willowhills.org/wordpress/?p=90Continue reading →]]>Organic food is really hot right now. The mainstream grocery stores are carrying organic products; even the USDA is now involved. Many of the organic producers are absolutely giddy regarding these latest developments. Here at Willow Hills, we are not so gleeful. While we are glad of the fact that more and more people are seeking out healthy food, we are not very impressed with foods from the industrial-government complex carrying the “organic” moniker.

Of course, if you haven’t learned by now, whenever the government becomes involved in regulating something, quality goes right out the window. It is replaced with industry-approved protocols that stifle innovation, quality and competition. No truer is this paradigm than with organic foods. Our aim is to uncover some of the schemes used to get the same industrial garbage approved, and to help you discern whether food is genuine or an industrial imitation. You must make this judgment yourself. No one else can ever do it for you.

Genuine Natural and Organic Practices

In order to understand how regulation of organic farming will lead to a result little better than our conventional approach, we first need to understand what is the ideal which is sought by true organic, natural and holistic farmers. The ideal we seek to achieve is food which is life giving, soil which is alive and gets better every year, and a balance which is similar to what occurs in nature. We try to achieve these ends by observing nature and trying to mimic her processes. Nature’s processes are fruitful, diverse, soil-building, and never harmful or toxic in general.

When we garden, we care first for our soil. Healthy soil is an ocean full of life. It is far from being just dirt – something to hold the plant up. If the soil is sufficiently healthy (which is often hard to accomplish), plants grow green and healthy. Their fruit is full of minerals, and insects leave the plants alone. Fertilizers and pesticides are simply unnecessary. Getting the soil into this healthy state is difficult if it has been robbed by conventional farming. Achieving this soil condition is the greatest task for the holistic farmer.

In animal husbandry, a similar situation occurs. We must have a healthy soil, and rotate or move our animals around our farms in a fashion mimicking natural patterns. Animals belong outdoors. Indoor confinement and feedlots are unnatural and extremely unhealthy for both the animal and the person who eats from the animal. In nature, animals are on the pastures and in the woods. Cattle must be continually moved onto fresh pasture that is similar to what the buffalo did naturally. Sheep or goats should be included in the farm, in order to take the place of the deer in the wild. Poultry are also an essential component in which nature usually provides birds to follow the buffalo herds. By imitating these natural patterns, we eliminate disease, parasites, and dramatically improve nutrition and flavour.

Organic Regulations

In contrast to what we term natural or holistic farming, organic regulations only seek to prohibit many chemicals, and some other inputs. They do not require any of the models or practices discussed, nor could they even if desired. For example, how do you require the delicate dance of cattle, sheep and poultry? How do you define when soil is healthy or how to make it so? These ideals defy definition. Furthermore, since organic foods are just another commodity, the only incentive for the farmer is to lower his costs. Since all food that meets the requirements is “organic”, then the farmer that produces his for the least cost will be the most profitable. This mechanism is the exact same one that delivers us our conventional food that is hardly more nutritious than cardboard. The end result for organic food will be the same – low cost and equally low quality.

The various organic regulations govern only what is not to be applied to either crops or the soil. It is a set of prohibitions, but no pro-active measures. Prohibited are artificial pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers. Also prohibited are animal manures, even if applied by the animal itself. This latter regulation we consider to be harmful to the soil, as we’ll explain shortly. Organically derived pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers are permitted. While these regulations are a big improvement to conventional practices, they fall far short of the farming we described previously.

Pesticides

While organic pesticides do not poison the food or the soil, they are still toxic to the farmer and beneficial insects. In balanced natural farming, there exist a number of techniques to completely eliminate the need for pesticides. By building the soil, properly rotating crops, and growing crops on a smaller scale, pests and diseases are almost never a problem. If a conventional farmer however, one day decides to go organic in order to realize higher prices for his crop, without laying the foundation we have described, he is going to have insect problems. He can then resort to organically approved pesticides and still get the same result as he did conventionally. He still hasn’t improved his soil, his produce is still mineral deficient, and the pesticides are still toxic to him and beneficial insects. You can bet that the produce coming out of mega-farms out west is raised very similar to conventional produce, albeit without the pesticide residues. While some will say, “that is exactly what I want – no pesticide residue”, the same person is overlooking the fact that the food thus produced is still nutritionally deficient.

Fertilizers

Organic regulations prohibit artificial fertilizers which if improperly applied can damage the soil. They can also mimic the appearance of a healthy plant; yet leave it devoid of important minerals. There are organically approved fertilizers of course, which are an improvement over artificial ones in general. However, while not harmful to the soil as artificial can be, they neither build the soil, nor really benefit the food grown anymore than artificial ones. Ironically, artificial fertilizers aren’t harmful if applied judiciously. For example in a grazing situation, they can even out forage growth throughout the year, and actually contribute to faster soil building and restoration.

Also prohibited are un-composted animal manures. While composting definitely improves the value of manures, it is not always necessary for good results. By adding composting requirements that are quite onerous to meet, many organic farmers resort to using fertilizers instead, which do not build the fragile organic matter in the soil.

Soil building

Conventional farming tends to mine the nutrients from the soil and in the process – depletes it. The result is a need for more fertilizers, and less nutritious food. Organic rules don’t deal with this situation at all, and in fact can contribute to the soil’s destruction. The prohibition on manures is a good example. Since the USDA involvement in organics, the regulations are often too costly to meet. Many smaller farms are therefore opting out of the certification process. Of course, larger corporations have no trouble meeting lengthy regulations. They also don’t care about building the soil, food quality or your health.

Animal Husbandry

The area of organic meats and animal products is the most glaring example of how little organic certification really affects your food for the better. The requirements are simply that organically approved feed is used, as well as avoidance of most drugs. While drug avoidance is laudable, the feed requirements don’t address the very model for raising the animals. Most animals now are kept in large confinement buildings, and organic regulations don’t affect this practice. Animals were never meant to be kept inside their entire lives, and not only is it cruel, disease ridden, but their meat and products are un-healthy as well, even if it is organically approved.

In contrast, the holistic farmer permits his animals to forage outside where they belong. He moves them often to prevent disease and parasite build-up. He co-ordinates multiple species movements to further mimic nature and avoid even more disease problems. The animal’s food is what is natural to them, not just what produces the fastest gain. The model used for raising animals is really more important than whether the feed used meets organic standards or not. Without a healthy model, all the approved feed in the world will not compensate for such a deficiency.

Other Healthy Sounding Terms

As we have seen, the term organic means very little in how your food was produced. Whenever regulations exist, there will always be creative ways around them. Here are some other terms used to mislead folks into thinking they are getting something other than the standard industrial garbage:

Free range – this term applies to eggs. Most folks think this term means access to pasture. It does not. It merely means the hens are not caged, and can move around on the factory floor. They also might have access to a small dirt yard. Is still means they are confined in a large factory house and never eat anything green or living their entire lives.

Omega-3 – this fatty acid is very important to your health. Products touting it are an improvement over the conventional ones, but they obtain this fat artificially, by feeding special grains. This enhancement is not nearly as good for you as products high in omega-3 naturally. Animals normally get omega-3 fats from eating green forage, such as grass and clover.

CLA – this is another important fatty acid. Non-holistic growers have also found a way to boost this fat artificially with special grain feeding. Since ruminant animals are the only ones that have this fat, feeding grains to enhance it will not enhance your health. Ruminant animals should not be feed grain at all.

Grass-fed – some unscrupulous grazers are appropriating this term to cash-in on the new research showing the health benefits of grass-fed meat. You must make sure the animal is never feed grain, as grain feeding will eliminate the benefits of grass in only a few months. If a local producer uses a hand-full of grain to catch a cow when needed is not a problem, but daily grain feeding is.

Summary

I hope I have demonstrated that you cannot trust someone else to ensure your food meets your standards of quality – you must make the effort to judge for yourself. If you want quality food, you must buy it from farmers who you can speak to and whom you can trust. That is how food has been purchased for the many hundreds of years prior to the FDA and USDA. It is time we return to that type of system. Fortunately, you don’t have to wait for government approval before you can begin getting such food. You can seek out holistic, natural farmers today and begin buying your food from them.

]]>http://willowhills.org/2011/08/04/truth-about-organic-terminology/feed/0Why Eat Grass-Fed Meathttp://willowhills.org/2011/08/04/why-eat-grass-fed-meat/
http://willowhills.org/2011/08/04/why-eat-grass-fed-meat/#respondThu, 04 Aug 2011 21:57:12 +0000http://willowhills.org/wordpress/?p=88Continue reading →]]>New understanding of human nutrition is sweeping away many popular beliefs. Foremost among these beliefs is that eating red meat is bad for your health. Another is that fat is bad for you and can cause degenerative diseases such as heart disease, stroke and many other ills. These notions are being swept away by exciting new discoveries.

Have you ever wondered: “if red meat is so bad for you, then how come our anscestors ate fat and meat galore, but never had heart attacks or strokes”? Or “if fat is so bad for you, how come it tastes so good”?

Well the answers to all these questions is found in the type of fat one consumes. The type of fat in grain-fed beef and lamb (all grocery store meat is grain-fed) is indeed a large factor in many modern degenerative diseases. However, the type of fat found in grass-fed meat is not disease forming. On the contrary, it can actually reverse these processes.. Since World War II, the diet of farm animals has shifted away from grass-based forage, and more toward grains such as corn and soybean. The result is a totally different fat makeup in the meat itself, which also coincides with the current epidemic of poor public health.

A cow or sheep is designed to eat grass. Likewise, we are designed to eat grass-fed meat. The principle benefit in eating grass-fed meat is in the fat. Fats are made up of various kinds of fatty acids. There are two fatty acids that are found in grass-fed meat which are lacking in many Americans’ diets. When grain is fed to a cow or sheep, these fatty acids are significantly decreased. These two fatty acids are called omega-3 and conjugated linoleic acid or CLA. It is a vital part of our health for us to be eating enough of these fats in our foods.

Some of the health issues realated to the lack of Omega-3 fatty acids include: dyslexia, violence, depression, memory problems, weight gain, cancer, heart disease, eczema, allergies, inflammatory diseases, arthritis and diabetes. Since this fatty acid is an essential component in brain cells, a deficiency in this nutrient is no small matter.

Now regarding CLA, the primary benefit is in preventing various kinds of cancer. It is the most potent cancer fighting substance known to man. It also has been found to help in preventing diabetes and weight gain. Studies have shown that even small amounts of grain fed to a cow or sheep will drastically reduce the amounts of CLA found in the animal’s fat. Another interesting fact regarding CLA is it can only be found in the meat and products of ruminating animals such as cows, sheep and goats. Suprisingly, turkeys have it as well.

So before buying anymore meat consider your own health. Isn’t it worthwhile to switch to eating grass-fed meat?

Everyone is touting their own diet nowadays. There is veganism, raw-foods only, no-grain, eat for your blood type, and of course the Atkins diet, not to mention a myriad of others. Not only are each of these diets unique, but they contradict each other in their principles and scientific claims. How can anyone decide which diet is right?

Here at Willow Hills, we have our own dietary guidelines (of course), and it too is unique. However, the principles on which they rest are not based in the latest pop-science, but in some simple fundamental premises. If you agree with our premises, then you agree with our diet. You don’t have to sort through contradicting studies or anything like that. Fair enough?

There is one dietary philosophy which does concur with our own; in fact it is almost identical – this philosophy is the one advocated by the work of Weston A Price. We wholeheartedly support his work and his findings. For more information on his work, visit the Weston A Price website.

Our Principles

God designed our bodies to function normally and properly. Malfunction is due to us (or others) deviating from His plan, i.e. sin. While much disease is caused by our own actions, we may also be innocent as well. Not all disease is due to our personal sin, but can be caused by sins of others or the world in general.

A good diet is the most fundamental basis for good health, and should consist of:

Locally produced foods

In season foods

Foods prepared with traditional techniques

Foods preserved with traditional techniques

Foods must be grown/raised using principles found in nature as opposed to modern agribusiness practices

Poor nutrition, and not bad genes are the primary cause of modern chronic illnesses such as cancer, diabetes, heart disease, dental problems, and many others.

Foods should be basic ones available to the average person, and not exotic in character or cost.

Our Principles in Detail

Now lets look at these principles in detail and why we believe them.

God’s Design for Normal Function

Weston A. Price was a dentist in the early 20th century who began to see a large increase in tooth decay, crooked teeth and many other health and dental problems in his practice. He wisely suspected a modern diet lacking in essential nutrition as the cause. He proceed to take a leave from his practice and travel around the world searching for peoples who still ate traditional non-western diets. When he encountered these groups, they invariably had excellent health and teeth. When modern diets were introduced to them, they also fell prey to the afflictions he saw in his practice in America.

Sally Fallon of the Weston A Price association draws an excellent analogy: God creates a perfect blueprint for everyone’s house. If we use inferior or missing materials in building that house, then when the house suffers defects it is not a poor design, but the substandard materials used in its construction.

While much of our chronic illnesses are caused by poor nutrition, there are other factors as work against us as well. Toxins in our food and environment contribute to cancer for example. It is also difficult to obtain nutritious foods due to the sorry state of American agri-business practices.

A Good Diet Uses Locally Produced Foods

Amazingly, our diet should match the locale in which we live for optimal health. This fact alone accounts for the considerable variations we see in diets around the world, and why single dietary regimes so often contradict each other, even when supported by scientific studies. For example, a local diet in artic regions such as Alaska is mainly fat, whereas in tropical regions it is low in fat. The amount of fat we need depends largely on how much sunshine we receive in our area.

While there is nothing wrong with using some foods from exotic locales, such as coconut oil, it should not be a major part of our most basic diet. Here in Kentucky, our indigenous sources for fat include lard and butter. While my family uses olive and coconut oils occasionally, lard and butter are our mainstay. Our diet also consists of dairy, poultry, beef, lamb, pork, grain, vegetables, and fruit. All of these foods are commonly grown in our area. The foods in your area may differ in types and balance. More on balance in the next section.

A Good Diet Uses Foods that are In-Season

This principle is probably the hardest one to adopt in our modern practice. We are so accustomed to eating whatever we want whenever we want, it is hard to deny our desires. It is especially difficult when we can now buy produce from around the world every month of the year. While some out of season foods are okay on occasion, it is best if we stay seasonal in our habits. For example, here in Kentucky, chicken is usually raised only in the warmer months (I am not going to even consider horrid factory raised chicken here – just pastured raised ones). In the cooler months, pork was the traditional meat. There is a very good reason for this variation. Pork fat is very high in vitamin D, whereas chicken fat is not. During the short, cold days of winter, folks in my area need a dietary source high in vitamin D, which pork so amply provides. In the summer however, we get all we need from the sun, so the extra found in pork would be unnecessary and even undesirable. Consider also, the fact that folks in New England often consumed cod-liver oil in winter. Their vitamin D needs are even greater during that time, and cod-liver oil is conveniently available locally due to their maritime location.

Other examples of seasonal changes in our diet abound. The excess springtime milk is made into butter and cheese, so that wintertime diets can share in the wonderful stored “sunshine” of those foods. Milk is also usually in short supply in the winter, so we can still obtain it in a stored form year-round. In winter, vegetables and fruits are scarce, forcing a greater reliance on meat, which coincides with our greater need for fat in the wintertime.

A Good Diet Uses Traditionally Prepared Foods

Modern industrial produced foods are not foods at all. Some of our greatest health problems are due to the widespread consumption of these foods. Vegetable oils for example, are not possible using traditional techniques, except for olive oil. Techniques such as pasteurization destroy healing agents in dairy foods, and actually make them harmful. Hydrogenation of oils is another industrial process that changes oils into something our bodies are not designed to handle. Refinement of flours, extrusion of breakfast cereals, and a myriad of other food processes designed not with health in mind, but industrial efficiency also contribute to our ills. If we seek good health, we must avoid all such processed foods.

Traditional processing on the other hand is not harmful at all. Slow milling of grains, cold-pressing to extract oils, and fermentation to preserve foods are some of the many fine techniques which promote good health.

A Good Diet Uses Traditionally Preserved Foods

Most of the food preservation techniques used today were not traditionally available. As a result they are not only suspect, but also not the best practice in general. Modern preservation processes include freezing, canning, pasteurising, and chemical preservatives. Traditional means of preservation consist mainly of drying and fermentation. While canning preserves many of the nutrients in foods, fermentation actually increases them, and is thus superior. Personally, my family is fairly new to fermentation, so we don’t practice it very much yet. I think this area of dietary change is probably the hardest for us moderns. Nevertheless, it is very worthwhile pursuing. Jerry Brunetti, who has cured himself of Lymphoma, regularly ate fermented Brassica vegetables, and credits it as one of the regimes he used in his cure.

Healthy Foods Must be Raised Naturally

Modern agri-business practices rape the soil, pollute our water, and deliver unhealthy food that leaves us malnourished. While adopting the guidelines in this article will greatly improve the nutrition of your diet, it still won’t be optimum until you eat food that is as nutritious as God intended it to be.

Conventional farming depletes the soil of essential minerals. Even certified organic farming is not required to restore these lost minerals, nor cease to deplete them. You must buy your produce from farmers who you can trust to preserve the soil and restore the minerals which have been lost. Certified organic is meaningless regarding the mineral content of your produce.

Factory meat production is not only abusive to animals – causing considerable animal health problems, but the resulting meat is unhealthy as well. Again, certified organic is no assurance of traditional healthy farm practices. Like your produce, you must buy your meat, eggs and dairy from farmers whom you trust to raise the animals according to natural and healthy principles. For cows, sheep and goats, this means no grain feeding at all – grass only. For chickens, turkeys and pigs, this means moving them across pastures, gardens, woods and such. Food raised in this way will have color and flavour. Egg yolks will be a deep orange, and cream a slight yellow color. The fat content of these foods will be totally different than factory versions. Instead of clogging your arteries, they will heal them and help prevent cancer.

Poor Nutrition, Not Bad Genes is the Cause of Poor Health

Modern medicine is on the lookout for genes that they believe cause health problems such as cancer and diabetes. We don’t agree with that concept. If we all ate properly nutritious foods and avoided bad foods, we wouldn’t see these problems to begin with. While it may be true that when a person is malnourished, his genetic make-up may predispose him to certain health problems, but gene-splicing is not the answer – proper nutrition is.

One of the most visible indicators of poor nutrition in a culture is the health of peoples’ teeth. Do they suffer from tooth decay? Is there mouth too small to accommodate the adult teeth properly, or will braces be needed? Look around, how many folks do you know without these dental problems? Is it bad genes? This is the question Weston A Price sought to answer when he travelled around the world. Without exception, he found these dental problems to be caused by a modern diet. Cultures which ate only traditional healthy foods had very few of these problems. Some cultures did not have the best diets, and those cultures did suffer somewhat from these problems. Without fail, every culture that adopted modern diets however, immediately started suffering from these dental problems.

Unfortunately, we can’t correct problems with our own teeth by changing our diet. We can prevent dental problems in our future children however, by their mother changing her diet before and during pregnancy.

Good Foods Should be Commonly Available to the Average Person

This last principle is to address our heightened concern about getting healthy foods. If in our pursuit of good foods, we spend a lot of money and import them from far away, we are probably out of balance in our diet. This principle is a safety-check; a check and balance. Following this principle will still provide a good diet, and will also make it affordable. For example, before looking far away for an exotic food such as Bison or Ostrich for example, look around locally for some good grass-fed beef and pastured chicken.

Another example of this principle is the no-grain diet that is all the rage. I don’t know about you, but not only can I not afford to eat meat and veggies all the time, but I really like eating bread. I find a diet without it to be rather monotonous. Sirloin steak every night sounds really good at first, but soon I will be searching for some good bread. Grain is a mainstay of our diets for good reason – it is not practical to do otherwise. Meat and veggies are just too costly to raise. I also base this observation on practices in the Bible as well. The Scripture abounds in examples of eating bread, even to the point that Jesus calls Himself “the bread of life”. If grain were as bad for you as people claim, then surely Jesus would have called Himself the “zucchini of life” or the “fish of life” would He not?

I believe the problem with grain consumption today is all the industrial processing which is so common. Eating homemade, whole-grain, sourdough bread isn’t going to cause anyone to get fat in my opinion. Eating potato chips, sweetened cereals, and store bought bread is another matter.

Let everything be done in moderation.

Our Guidelines for a Good Diet (for Kentucky only)

Before giving details of our diet, let me emphatically state that they are for Kentucky and neighboring locations. Your location will most certainly differ due to climate, proximity to the sea, etc. I give them nevertheless to provide an example. Please adapt them for your area in particular.

Dairy

This is a primary part of our diet year-round. We drink lots of raw milk from exclusively grass-fed cows. While we usually skim much of the cream off, we still eat it by itself or as butter, so we are always getting all the fat from the cow’s milk. We eat a fair amount of cheese as well. I also make Kefir from the milk and drink that on occasion. It is really good on granola as well (I go easy on the granola though –only once a week). We also eat oatmeal four days a week, and found that putting a generous amount of cream on the oatmeal is key to making this food both nutritious and filling. Eating straight oatmeal (sweetened of course) does not keep a man full very long, and is potentially diabetic causing. Adding cream fixes these problems, and makes this inexpensive food into a good food. We found this practice is a traditional one in Scotland where they eat lots of oats.

It is very important to use milk that is raw – straight from the cow, and not pasteurized. There are many articles at realmilk.com that address this issue better than I can, and we have a concise article on our website as well on the subject. Suffice it to say that our creator never intended milk to be consumed in a pasteurized state or it would have come that way from the cow. A number of our health problems today stem from drinking pasteurized milk, and amazingly, using raw milk will correct them.

Meat & Eggs

We eat poultry mainly in the summertime, and beef, lamb and pork mainly in the wintertime, but not exclusively. It is nice to have chicken soup occasionally in the winter months, especially when one is sick with a cold. We also eat eggs year round, and like to fry them in bacon fat, especially important in the winter for the vitamin D. Eggs are a real health food. Eat as many as you like, just make sure the hens who lay them have been pastured on grass. Store-bought eggs from factory farms are not the same, even if they are called “free-range”; it merely means the hens have access to the factory floor.

Things we don’t yet do, but traditional cultures practice is eating organ meats, especially raw. We do eat chicken organs on occasion, especially my wife when she is pregnant for the iron content. She usually craves fried chicken liver during these times.

We eat meat pretty much everyday, but in varying amounts. Sometimes, it may be just a little like in a stir-fry, and other times a good hearty steak. Being in Kentucky, we rarely eat fish. We are trying to get some ponds going, and when they are, we should be adding fish to our diets, but probably not as often as if we lived in a coastal area.

Grain

Grain is a mainstay of our diet, as it is in many cultures. We always eat in a whole state however – no Cheese-Puffs or Twinkies in our house. As I mentioned earlier, we have oatmeal with cream for breakfast four days a week, and eat a fair amount of whole-grain bread. I particularly like toast with butter and jam for a snack when I am hungry. We are learning to make sourdough bread, and it is most excellent. Sally Fallon insists that sourdough is the only healthy way to make bread, since the long development time is key to breaking down anti-nutrients contained in the bran. She points out traditional cultures always fermented their grain for several hours before eating it. We agree with this idea, but are still learning to fully practice it.

Vegetables and Fruit

Contrary to popular belief, many veggies are better for you cooked than raw, and even better fermented. We are still learning to make and enjoy fermented vegetables, but do enjoy them cooked. We also enjoy salads every now and then, but especially in the summer. Fruit is of course a favourite, and is often dessert for many meals. We stay completely away from juices, except for some homemade apple cider and grape juice for an occasional treat. You wouldn’t believe how different homemade juices are from the sterilized and filtered sugar water sold in the store. If you like juice, make sure you make it yourself.

We also eat abundantly from our garden and orchard when things are in season. We do can and freeze many things however, but would like to switch over to fermented foods in the future as it is much better.

Fats and Sugars

For fats, we use olive oil in salad dressings, coconut oil in popcorn, lard for frying, and butter for everything else. I suggest you do the same, adjusted for climate and regional differences of course. We enjoy all the fat of the land, as long as it is grass-fed for ruminant animals such as cow and sheep, and pastured for all other animals such as chicken and pig.

For sugar, we do use some in baking, but we only eat what we personally prepare – no store bought stuff. We also like to use raw honey and maple syrup where we can. As the proverb says “My son, have you found honey? Do not eat too much, lest you get sick and vomit”. Everything in moderation.

Beverages

We drink tea, herbal tea, milk, Kefir, egg-nog and spring water. Fermented soft drinks are also fine. Avoid commercial juices and soft drinks at all costs. If you have trouble giving them up, just start practicing the whole foods diet we do, and they will soon become unappealing. I stopped drinking cola because I not longer cared for how it tasted. I cannot tolerate soft drinks to this day. Drinking raw milk is probably the best thing for losing the taste for these poisons.

Processed Foods

We avoid them completely. If it comes in a package, it usually is not food. Packaged foods usually have white flour, hydrogenated oil, various neuro-toxins, etc. They are addictive, cause obesity, all kinds of neurological disorders, diabetes, heart disease, and the list goes on and on. These foods include cereals, crackers, cookies, pastries, snack foods and more. When you stop eating them, you will find very soon that they do not taste good anymore. Then you will be free, and will be enjoying real food for a change. If you want a treat – make it yourself.

Fast Foods

We avoid these as well. Almost all of them are fried in vegetable oils and are therefore just as bad for you as processed foods. The meat is rarely even real meat. It usually has all sorts of additives and fillers such as soybean protein.

Summary

I hope you have found this article helpful. These dietary principles are in direct contrast to the typical American diet. That should be no surprise since the American diet will almost surely lead to heart disease and/or diabetes. It may sound like a lot of work, and it is compared to the instant food convenience to which we are accustomed, but we need to think long term though. Is it more work to bake bread and make our own meals from food we seek out and buy from local farmers versus the time spent in doctors’ offices, hospitals and pharmacies as we get older?

Remember the simple principles – eat local, in-season, traditional, naturally raised and common sense foods. In doing so, you’ll discover a whole wonderful world of food you never knew existed, as well as feeling like a new person from increased health benefits.

Variety is Important

If someone has to eat the same food day in and day out, he will soon become tired of it. This appetite fatigue is a mechanism designed by God to ensure we eat a variety of foods. When we consume the same foods all the time, we are setting ourselves up for nutrient imbalances and deficiencies. Likewise, our farm animals must also have variety in their diet. This need for variety is another reason all animals meant for food need to have abundant access to actively growing, natural forages. A common trap is for a farmer to keep his animal on the same plot of land too long. It is hard work to constantly move animals to new pastures, so farmers tend to become lazy about their rotations. This added work and cost is what led modern industrial farming to go indoors with livestock operations. It is easy, convenient, and inexpensive. Since price is the only reward in the marketplace today, if a way can be found for food to be raised cheaper, it will be. These incentives are always present, so you must be vigilant to ensure your food animals have access to fresh pasture at all times. The key word here is “fresh”. They must be moved to new pastures frequently enough that they always have fresh food to eat.

Another aspect of food variety for animals is the types of forages available. Fields of one kind of grass are not optimal. Pastures should be comprised of many plant varieties; weeds included. The animals should be free to choose plants they need at the moment. The more variety for all of us, the better off we’ll be. There is health and safety in variety.

Supplementation is Important

Supplements have been the rage for the health conscious community for many years, vitamins being the first and most common of those supplements. Unfortunately, many supplements are either artificially made or extracted from other key nutrients in which they are found in nature. The result is often just expensive urine. There is no better way to obtain the nutrients you need than from food. However, when that food is lacking in those nutrients, then supplementation is prudent and useful. However, we must be wise regarding this supplementation. Marketers are all too eager to exploit the latest healing food discoveries with useless and expensive extracts. Even the most educated consumer is duped by expensive supplements that are mainly fillers.

In order to benefit from a supplement, you must first understand what your body needs. Just taking a multi-vitamin is usually of little use. By spending money on expensive supplements that you don’t need, you may not have the money to spend where it will more good. Wisdom and knowledge are needed.

You also need to take supplements in forms that your body can use. For example, most minerals in an inorganic form are poorly absorbed by people. Obtaining minerals in organic form usually requires them to be present in food. Often organic forms of supplements do not exist in the health food store. The term “health food store” itself demonstrates the wrong thinking that is prevalent today. Most “health food stores” don’t even carry foods. Even if they do, they are token items amoung the myriad of pills.

The second problem with most supplements is that they often don’t work without the various co-factors found in food. For example, even though orange juice has very little vitamin C, it is usually more effective than pure vitamin C tablets alone for what your body needs. When obtaining supplements, you must obtain not only the active compound, but also the co-factors that are usually present in food.

The third problem with many supplements is that they just don’t provide enough to do you much good. Cod liver oil is a good example. In order to get as much vitamin D (not to mention omega-3 fatty acids) as you need, you would have to take dozens of pills. We are a drug-obsessed culture. Popping supplement pills is just more of the same mindset as the drug pill popping culture in which we live.

The fourth problem with many supplements is they may just be so much filler. Garlic oil capsules are a prime example. There is more soybean oil than garlic oil in them. You are much better off, just squeezing a few garlic cloves in a press than taking an expensive and useless garlic supplement.

If you are beginning to think that supplements are rather worthless, and that instead you should look to nutrient-dense foods for your nutrition needs, then you are thinking correctly. There is a valuable place for supplements however. Once you have a good diet of nutrient-dense foods, and learn enough to know what supplements would still benefit you, then those are the supplements you should take. Unfortunately, often these supplements may not exist. We are in need of food-based supplements that have substance and not just hype.

Let Taste Be Your Judge

Nutrient-dense foods will have more flavor than deficient foods. Likewise, real foods will have more flavor than artificial ones. So many foods today have MSG added because the underlying food has so little flavor. Sometimes real food has such an intensity of flavor it takes a little getting used to. When I first had real salad-bar eggs, the taste was pretty strong to me. After a few days of eating them though, I could not stand factory eggs any more. They not only looked gray, but tasted “gray” too. The same is true with meat, dairy and produce. In fact, there is a simple field test for produce that measures the concentration of solids in the juice. The instrument is called a refractometer, and the quantity being measured is called “brix”. The higher the brix, the more nutrient-dense the food is. Surprisingly, it is not uncommon for conventionally grown produce to have a higher brix than organic produce. It takes good soils and excellent skills to grow high brix produce.

While refractometers are good instruments and can be bought rather cheaply, you can still use your sense of taste as a guide. For meats and other animal products, it may be the only test you can currently do.

Go for Quality not Price

As we have mentioned, farmers both organic and conventional are paid on the basis of price. Consumers today usually make their food selections on the same basis. Even though the same person may pay several times more for a particular garment or some other branded consumer item, they will choose food on the basis of price alone. Knowing what science is discovering daily, we can no longer do so. If we do, we will just defer the costs to the future – in money and in health. We must therefore change our mindset. We must choose our food based on nutrient quality and not price. We must also understand what factors alter a particular food’s nutrient value. Only then can we make an informed choice. The choices you make today regarding the foods you eat will affect you, your children and your grandchildren in the years to come.

Eating the Right Kinds of Foods

We must not simply follow the latest health food fads. We must educate ourselves on what foods we need for optimal health and what foods we should avoid. While extensive information on this topic is beyond the scope of this article, here are some basic recommendations:

Foods To Eat

Pastured meats, dairy and eggs.

Lard (from pastured pigs if possible), butter and coconut oil. Olive oil should be used for salads only.

Fish and Cod Liver Oil – 1 to 2 tablespoons per day.

Colorful vegetables and fruits. Brassicas (cabbage, broccoli, etc) should be either cooked or fermented, e.g. sauerkraut.

Eat in Moderation

Whole grains, preferably fermented or sprouted first

Small amounts of honey and raw sugar; combine with fiber and fats

Foods to Avoid

Processed foods – Snack foods, packaged breakfast cereals, just about anything that comes in a box.

Please observe that this is just a partial list. You may notice that this list departs from various food fads. For example, Brassicas should not be eaten raw, which violates the raw food fad. Also, it has abundant meat and fat, going against vegan diets and mainstream low-fat regimes. Instead of these strange fads, you should choose for variety and nutrient density. Even using the recommended foods, if you eat too much of one thing, that normally good food could cause you harm. Always eat in moderation and the more variety the better.

Summary

In our modern world it is getting harder and harder to obtain nutrient-dense foods. You must therefore make compromises. God made our bodies very resilient, so these compromises need not compromise your health. The problem today is that our diet has gone beyond compromise into malnutrition. If you can buy organic produce that is also nutrient-dense, by all means do so. If however it is too costly, difficult or impossible to obtain, then get the nutrient dense produce that is not organic. There are many carcinogens that we are exposed to that are far worse than pesticides. Only by providing your body with the healing foods it needs can you combat these toxins. You must also avoid foods that provide the wrong kinds of fats, sugars and empty calories. It does no good to eat the same amalgamated white-flour, partially hydrogenated soybean oil, high fructose corn syrup concoctions that pass for food with a smattering of health food and supplements. You must eat real food and lots of it. You will be better for it, and your children will be better for it.